Organizations typically introduce standardized operating procedures in order to improve efficiency in operations and control quality. This is especially necessary in large organizations where the size of the operation typically prohibits close supervision of more than a portion of the tasks by any one trusted individual, or in organizations having multiple offices at different locations, many or all of which may be involved at one point in a given procedure.
Traditionally, such standardized procedures are documented in an organization handbook or the like and are in a written form, and may include some descriptive tools such as flow charts or the like to aid the members of the organization in better understanding when a certain task should be performed, by whom and it's interrelationship with other tasks.
In order to improve the ease and efficiency of developing and enforcing standardized operating procedures, a number of tools have been developed. These tools are typically implemented in a networked environment to better leverage collaboration between those developing the operating procedures, simplify roll out and simplify the production of usage reports for audits and governance amongst other reasons.
These tools typically include a graphical user interface displaying a procedure flow chart or the like. One drawback of these tools, however, is that in more complex procedures the tool can typically only show a small portion of the procedure at any one time. One other drawback is that once a procedure is live and being used by the organization, it is difficult to modify the procedure and test modified versions of the procedure prior to their being released. This is especially true in a collaborative environment where more than one person may be attempting to introduce modifications at a given time.